Arthropods and Fire: Previous Research Shaping Future Conservation

Fire is a natural process in grasslands that maintains an open canopy and creates variable vegetative structure and composition over time. Although there is a wealth of knowledge on plant and avian responses to fire in the Great Plains, there are few generalizations for arthropods. We conducted a literature review to synthesize research on arthropod responses to fire in the Great Plains to offer more insights to land managers, policy makers, and researchers. Overall, we found that there was variation in how arthropod communities responded to fire; metrics of both abundance and diversity were found to respond positively, negatively, or not at all. We then delved into two potential factors that might help us understand this important variation. First, we looked for effects from the amount of time since fire. Although much of the literature focused on arthropod responses to burning in the first 6 mo after fire, there were still both positive and negative results regardless of timeframe. We also hypothesized that taxonomy may provide insights and found that some orders tended to respond negatively (Araneae, Lepidoptera) or positively (Coleoptera, Orthoptera) to fire; however, responses were still variable and likely dependent on additional factors. To help enable managers to make better decisions about fire application, we used the literature to identify three traits-mobility, life stage, and feeding guild-that can predict responses to fire at a species level when research is lacking. Management recommendations vary on a species-by-species basis, but available research suggests that arthropod communities do not simply respond negatively to fire. Knowledge gaps remain concerning the origin of those community responses, particularly in terms of individual species' responses and specific mechanisms that allow individuals to persist after fire. Future research should focus on theoretical and applied basis for arthropod conservation using prescribed fire. © 2017 The Society for Range Management. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.The Rangeland Ecology & Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information

A hierarchical perspective to woody plant encroachment for conservation of prairie-chickens

Encroachment of Great Plains grasslands by fire-sensitive woody plants is a large-scale, regional process that fragments grassland landscapes. Using prairie grouse (Tympanuchus spp.) of conservation concern,we apply hierarchy theory to demonstrate how regional processes constrain lower-level processes and reduce the success of local management. For example, fire and grazingmanagementmay be locally important to conservation, but the application of fire and grazing disturbances rarely cause irreversible fragmentation of grasslands in the Great Plains. These disturbance processes cause short-term alterations in vegetation conditions that can be positive or negative, but from a long-term perspective fire maintains large tracts of continuous rangelands by limiting woody plant encroachment. Conservation efforts for prairie grouse should be focused on landscape processes that contribute to landscape fragmentation, such as increased dominance of trees or conversion to other land uses. In fact, reliance on localmanagement (e.g.,maintaining vegetation structure) to alter prairie grouse vital rates is less important to grouse population persistence given contemporary landscape level changes. Changing grass height, litter depth, or increasing the cover of forbs may impact a fewremaining prairie-chickens, but itwill not create useable space at a scale relevant to the historic conditions that existed before land conversion and fire suppression.The Rangeland Ecology & Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information

A hierarchical perspective to woody plant encroachment for conservation of prairie-chickens

Encroachment of Great Plains grasslands by fire-sensitive woody plants is a large-scale, regional process that fragments grassland landscapes. Using prairie grouse (Tympanuchus spp.) of conservation concern,we apply hierarchy theory to demonstrate how regional processes constrain lower-level processes and reduce the success of local management. For example, fire and grazingmanagementmay be locally important to conservation, but the application of fire and grazing disturbances rarely cause irreversible fragmentation of grasslands in the Great Plains. These disturbance processes cause short-term alterations in vegetation conditions that can be positive or negative, but from a long-term perspective fire maintains large tracts of continuous rangelands by limiting woody plant encroachment. Conservation efforts for prairie grouse should be focused on landscape processes that contribute to landscape fragmentation, such as increased dominance of trees or conversion to other land uses. In fact, reliance on localmanagement (e.g.,maintaining vegetation structure) to alter prairie grouse vital rates is less important to grouse population persistence given contemporary landscape level changes. Changing grass height, litter depth, or increasing the cover of forbs may impact a fewremaining prairie-chickens, but itwill not create useable space at a scale relevant to the historic conditions that existed before land conversion and fire suppression.The Rangeland Ecology & Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information